BC Business
David Labistour’s push to ?refashion iconic retailer ?Mountain Equipment ?Co-op in his own image. ?If you’ve seen the 2011 Mountain Equipment Co-op catalogue, you’ve had a chuckle over the nostalgic photos from the ’70s of its founding members: mountain men and women with big hair and short shorts sporting giant neon-orange backpacks. Caked in mud and grime, they’ve been living off the land for days, or weeks even, and haven’t seen a shower in at least as long.?
If you’ve seen the 2011 Mountain Equipment Co-op catalogue, you’ve had a chuckle over the nostalgic photos from the ’70s of its founding members: mountain men and women with big hair and short shorts sporting giant neon-orange backpacks. Caked in mud and grime, they’ve been living off the land for days, or weeks even, and haven’t seen a shower in at least as long.
David Labistour offers a stark contrast to the mountain man of yore. Dressed nattily in dark-blue jeans and a charcoal-grey pullover, the trim 55-year-old bounces jauntily down the spiral staircase of the MEC headquarters on West Fourth Avenue to greet me with a firm handshake and a broad smile.
Appointed CEO in 2008, Labistour has made it his mission to bring the venerable Vancouver institution into the modern age. An avid outdoor enthusiast himself, he expresses nothing but admiration for the do-it-yourself hippie entrepreneurs who founded the co-op 40 years ago, but it’s time to move on, he says: “We have to re-energize our original spirit to make sure we’re relevant to the future.”
Having spent his career in the clothing business, Labistour is a shrewd judge of modern trends. He began in design and product management for a leisure-wear manufacturer in his native South Africa, then moved into retailing, directing brand management for the South African Woolworth’s. (Ever sensitive to subtleties of branding, he’s quick to point out that the South African Woolworth’s started out as Marks and Spencer, and doesn’t carry the same connotations of cheapness as its North American counterpart.) After emigrating to Canada in 1999, he spent some time consulting on fashion trends for clothing retailers such as Aritzia before taking the top spot at MEC.
Prior to launching his career in leisure wear, however, Labistour devoted himself full-time to his true passion: water sports. He dropped out of his fourth year of university to spend a year and a half representing South Africa in international windsurfing competitions. Today that passion has evolved only slightly to the even more challenging sport of kite surfing, which he describes as a hobby that has “taken my life over.”
In describing today’s modern outdoor enthusiast, Labistour paints a picture remarkably similar to himself. “A lot of Canadians are living in large urban environments,” he says. “In the face of competition for time and money, a lot of recreation isn’t like it used to be.” After describing his own outings to the Whistler backcountry and some local windsurfing hot spots, he explains that, rather than heading off into the bush for weeks at a time, today’s MEC member exercises in short bursts and stays fit during the week by running, biking and practicing yoga. (Labistour’s exercise of choice involves attending cross-fit classes during the week.)
Of course, the new urban outdoorsman will need yoga wear and travel accessories to cater to this lifestyle, which has led to some grumbling from long-time MEC members about losing sight of the co-op’s founding vision. But it’s in catering to broader demographic trends that Labistour faces perhaps the stiffest challenge to his vision for the co-op.
“More women today are not just recreating in the outdoors but are driving purchases,” he explains, adding that “different cultures as they get involved in the outdoors want stuff that not just works well but looks good. It has to fit well, it has to be flattering, it has to be coloured and well designed. We have to embrace that.”
Today’s MEC stores look very different than they did pre-Labistour: not only will the visitor find such urban outdoor accoutrements as a collapsible commuter bike and a waterproof iPad tote bag, but racks upon racks of stylish outdoor wear extend as far as the eye can see. This embracing of modern trends in leisure wear has opened Labistour to the criticism that MEC has become just another retailer, and enjoys an unfair competitive advantage due to its non-profit status as a co-op.
The accusation is an old one, Labistour says. Yes, being a co-op has its advantages, he admits, including using members’ equity to fund the organization, but it also has its disadvantages; for instance it can’t raise capital by issuing shares. At any rate, the gripe from competing retailers should be laid to rest with a single question, he suggests: “If we did have such an advantage, why aren’t more of these people co-ops?”
As for selling out and forsaking the roots of the co-op, Labistour is adamant that his vision remains true to the spirit of the founding members. “When we look back to those original university students in the tent coming up with the concept of MEC, we focus on the physical. What we don’t do is look at the spirit of those people,” he explains. “If you took that group of young, entrepreneurial, adventurous, fun-loving active people today and said, ‘Imagine an organization that is focused on outdoor recreation,’ it probably wouldn’t look like what MEC has looked like for the last 10 years.”